


5 Times Will Brings Home A Stray & 1 Time Hannibal Does

by EnbyStiles



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Cats, Cottagecore, Dogs, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Hannibal likes cats, Ireland, Kittens, M/M, Maybe a little OOC, Post-Canon, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, art teacher Hannibal Lecter, blame twitter for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26136472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnbyStiles/pseuds/EnbyStiles
Summary: Will starts bringing home strays two weeks into their living a new life together in Ireland.A year later, after one stray turns into five, Hannibal brings home a stray of his own.
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 9
Kudos: 200





	5 Times Will Brings Home A Stray & 1 Time Hannibal Does

**Author's Note:**

> So Moonzenberg on twitter had posted asking if people thought Hannibal was a cat person and somehow I got the idea and drive to write this. Enjoy.

~1~

They’re in Ireland for less than two weeks when Will comes home with his first stray. It’s a scraggly looking Irish Terrier pup. Maybe six months old from the size of if. Hannibal sighs and insists Will take it to the vet to be checked for a microchip. Which it doesn’t have.

He doesn’t even try to dissuade Will from taking the thing home once she’s cleaned up and given a clean bill of health from the vet. He knows how much Will misses his dogs. And in all honesty, the pup is cute.

Will names her Lola. 

For the first few days, she sticks close to Will whenever he’s not holding her. It takes her a bit to warm up to Hannibal. Not that he makes any real effort to ingratiate himself to her. He likes dogs. He just doesn’t feel drawn to them like Will does. So it’s a bit surprising when she decides one night out of the blue that she would rather sit with Hannibal than Will after dinner.

~2~

Two months in, Hannibal comes home from teaching a drawing class in the village one evening to find Will out on the front porch of their cottage giving a timid brown Lurcher a bath. It has the saddest expression on its face that Hannibal has ever seen from a dog.

“I already spoke to the vet,” Will says before Hannibal can even ask. “He isn’t chipped and he doesn’t match any missing dog descriptions. They’re going to give me a call if someone comes looking for him,” he assures as he starts to rinse the dog off.

Hannibal shakes his head and walks past them into the house, where Lola greets him happily with a soft bark and a wet nose to his hand when he holds it out to pet her. “It would appear that you now have a brother,” he tells her as he scratches her head lightly. He’s not sure why he says it. It’s silly and he doesn’t imagine she understands what he means. 

With a glance outside to where Will is drying the new dog off, he closes the door and gets ready to start cooking dinner.

Will names the new addition to the family Charlie.

~3~

Less than a month later Hannibal isn’t at all surprised when Will walks in one night carrying a soaking wet older looking Wicklow Terrier. The thing seems perfectly content to be carried by the man. And doesn’t even mind being shifted from arm to arm while Will closes the door and drops the bag he uses to carry his lunch to work on the floor beside him. Once that’s taken care of, he sets the dog at his feet to shuck off his raincoat.

Lola and Charlie are there in a heartbeat, sniffing at the new dog excitedly and making the poor thing back against Will’s legs in fear at the unexpected attention. They back off when Will lets out a sharp ‘tss tss’ sound with his tongue. They moved back several steps before sitting and waiting to receive permission to move after that.

Hannibal watches, impressed with the progress Will has made training the dogs. “What have you named this one?” he asks, not even bothering to question if Will has contacted the gardai and vet yet. It’s later than he usually gets home, so chances are good that he did that before coming home for the evening.

“Her name is Polly,” Will informs as he scoops her back up, soaking his shirt in the process, and heads in the direction of the bathroom to get her cleaned and warmed up. “The vet said her owner passed away from old age a few nights ago. She got out when they were taking the body to the funeral home, and none of the extended family wanted her where she’s older.”

“That is a shame,” Hannibal replies loud enough to be heard over the sound of the tub starting to fill with warm water. He glances over to Charlie and Lola, who still sit by the door waiting patiently for Will to give them permission to go inspect the newcomer. 

Once she’s cleaned and dry, Polly makes friends with the other two dogs quickly.

Will is clearly pleased, and Hannibal kisses his forehead before leaving him to sit with his dogs. He has to get ready for his next drawing class. And if he stays in here much longer he’ll be too tempted to kiss Will all the more thanks to the happiness radiating from him. It makes his smiling lips almost too hard to resist.

~4~

Five months in Hannibal sees the black and white Border Collie before he sees his husband. The dog is sitting on the front steps that lead up onto the covered porch of the cottage. It has a collar, but no tags. And Hannibal wonders if it belongs to one of WIll’s coworkers at the boatyard for the briefest of moments.

“Will, who’s dog is this?” he calls out, stopping a few steps from the porch. He knows Will is home. It was his day off, but his fishing gear is sitting out and the smell of freshly caught fish lingers in the air.

“Ours?” Will calls back, tone questioning like he’s worried Hannibal is about to tell him to get rid of the dog. He steps out onto the porch a moment later, giving a short whistle to draw the dog’s attention and get it to turn and come to stand by him. “His name is Oliver. I found him sniffing around the creek when I went fishing this morning.”

“How is it that you manage to find so many strays?” Hannibal asks with a small, teasing smile. Will finds more stray dogs than most people find loose change on the street. It dumbfounds him at times.

“Just lucky, I guess,” Will says with a smirk of his own as he reaches down to pet the newest addition to the family. “If you’re not comfortable with so many animals I can take him to the vets and ask them to find him a new home?”

Heaving a fake put-upon sigh, Hannibal climbs the few steps that lead onto the porch and comes to stand before Will, the new dog to his left. “That won’t be necessary, Will. Keep your dog. Clearly he already adores you, and who can blame him? You are very charming.” The last words are uttered in a low voice as he brings a hand up to brush knuckles under Will’s chin, making him tilt his own head up and meet Hannibal as he leans in to place a kiss on Will’s lips.

Will melts into the kiss, humming happily as his hands find their way to holding Hannibal’s coat and pull him in closer. They part a moment later when Oliver lets out a small whine, wanting attention from his new human. It makes Will chuckle and Hannibal smile softly.

“Attend to your dog, Will. I’ll go prepare the fish you caught for lunch.”

Will gives Hannibal one last peck on the lips before smiling and stepping around him. he whistles so that Oliver, and the rest of the dogs who were waiting inside the doorway, follow him out into the garden.

~5~

Hannibal is in the small study of the cottage reading a book when he hears the dogs all perk up and bark at Will’s arrival home. No sooner as the door opens he can be heard ordering the dogs to move back and stay. There’s a smell of mud that Hannibal associates with the shipyard, but it’s much thicker and more pungent than normal. As if Will came home covered in it. Curious, he closes his book and goes to investigate.

The sight that greets him actually makes Hannibal tip his head back and pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation before he can look his husband in the eyes. “What happened?” he asks instead of chastising him for tracking mud into the cottage. 

Will isn’t the one covered in mud. The dog in his arms is. It’s partially dried, making the poor thing look all the more miserable while also seemingly ready to crumble with how it shakes in his grasp. “He was stuck in the mud by the boat launch. Walter and Reggie got him out. They’re back at work talking to the gardai about him right now. It looked like someone must have dumped him from a boat,” Will explains as he kicks off his slightly muddy work boots and starts to walk towards the bathroom.

“Are you certain?” he asks, surprised. He remembers Will talking about the two other men at the yard that work his regular shift repairing boats. They always sound like nice fellows. He isn’t surprised they went to the dog's aid, but he is a bit surprised they let him take the dog instead of turning it over to the gardai.

“There were no prints leading out from the shore, but there was a clear trail from the water line coming up towards the yard.” He manages to get the shaking dog set in the tub quickly, and turns on the shower rather than filling the tub like he would when bathing one of the other dogs. The dog whines and Will does his best to calm him as he carefully wipes the mud from its fur.

“Will the gardai be coming to speak with you then?” Hannibal asks as he grabs a cloth and some of the special shampoo Will keeps for the dogs. He hands them over, watching the way he carefully continues to soothe and clean the scared animal. He isn’t particularly worried about the gardai coming around. But he would like a heads up for these sorts of things.

“I told Walt and Reg to call if they need me to bring the dog in. I said I would send pictures once I got him cleaned up and calmed down. He didn’t want anyone else touching him once he was out of the mud. It took me ten minutes to coax him out from under one of the boats as it is,” Will explains, keeping his voice gentle despite the anger that’s visible in his eyes at the thought of someone dumping an innocent animal in the water to die like this.

“Your compassion for animals is clear as a bell, Will. It’s understandable he would feel safest with you once you made it clear you weren’t a threat,” Hannibal notes, earning him a smile from Will that momentarily breaks through the anger.

“I’ll get you a few towels,” he offers once it’s clear the animal is almost cleaned up. From the looks of it he would guess that it was a Kerry Beagle. After Will brought home Charlie, Hannibal made a point of looking into what other kinds of dogs are native to the area, since he had a feeling Will would be bringing home many more.

The dog has a chip, giving his name as Emry. His owner was arrested for animal abuse, as upon the gardai’s arrival, he asked if they brought his dog’s body. He had dumped him from a friend’s boat because he didn’t want him anymore.

Will doesn’t even have to ask to keep him. The gardai call up that evening saying he’s theirs if they like. Of course, Will accepts.

~+1~

It’s raining yet again. Almost a year living in Ireland and Hannibal still isn’t quite used to how much it rains. It makes him wish he had bought a car upon settling in. But nearly nobody in the area they live in uses one. And he didn’t want to draw too much attention to his and Will’s presence.

The walk home from the small school he gives drawing classes at only takes about twenty minutes on a good day. Days like today he tends to take a bit longer due to the mud and flooded sections of the old roadway he walks along. He keeps an extra trench coat and umbrella at the school, as well as a pair of boots, for days like today. And he is grateful for them to be sure.

He’s walking past a field usually filled with sheep, a stone fence lining the edge where it meets the road. Every so often there are a few stones knocked loose, and he glances down at them, mostly to avoid kicking one.

As he draws near the end of the fence, at the far end of the field, something small and grey catches his eye. It looks just a bit like a stone. Until he draws closer.

The tiniest, pathetic mew cries out as he draws near. Making Hannibal crouch down and shift what hand holds his umbrella as he reaches out to touch the small grey kitten that sits shivering in the tall grass beside the fence.

It lets out another small cry, claws coming out as it desperately clings to his hand when he scoops it up. “Ssshh ssshh. It’s alright,” he says softly as he cradles the tiny thing to his chest. It can’t be more than a few months old. Old enough to be away from its mother most likely, but not out on its own in a storm like this.

It looks up at him with wide green eyes as it cries once more. Tucking it inside his coat where it will stay warm is the logical choice and he does so with little protest from the feline. “You’re alright. Let’s get you home and warmed up? We can decide what to do with you then, hm?” He’s a bit surprised when he feels the kitten begin to purr once it’s safely tucked into the warmth of his coat.

He walks faster than usual the rest of the way home, wanting to get the kitten out of the rain and cold as quickly as possible.

Will is reading a newspaper when Hannibal steps inside, and he lowers it to acknowledge his husband’s return home. He opens his mouth to greet him, but pauses, brow furrowing in confusion when he sees the way Hannibal holds one arm tucked close to his chest and clutches his coat protectively. “What’s wrong?” he asks as he sets the paper aside and moves to come stand beside Hannibal.

Hannibal doesn’t answer, instead opening his coat to show Will the small grey kitten that’s curled against his chest. It lets out a small meow and blinks up at Will with wide eyes.

“Aw, poor thing,” Will coos as he reaches out and scoops the kitten up from Hannibal’s grasp. “It was outside in this mess?”

Nodding, Hannibal gets his umbrella closed and quickly shucks off his wet coat. “By the fields outside of the village. It was in the grass. I didn’t see any sign of a mother or other kittens around.” 

Nodding, Will takes the kitten into the kitchen. The water from the tap is warm, and he lets it run a moment before carefully holding it in the sink and using it to help warm it up. The kitten doesn’t protest as one would expect, but then again it’s been out in the rain for who knows how long and is probably just happy to feel warmth for a change.

Once again Hannibal finds himself watching Will in awe. He carefully gets the kitten warmed and cleaned before toweling it dry with a dishcloth. When he’s finished he holds it up and looks it over before smiling at Hannibal. “It’s a girl,” he says before cradling the newly squirming fluffball to his chest. She mews and keeps squirming even as Will tries to calm her.

“May I?” Hannibal asks as he steps closer, one hand raised like he wants to take the kitten but doesn’t want to impose.

“Hu? Of course!” Will say as he hands her over, grinning when she settles into the other man’s hold and begins to purr at the way Hannibal’s fingers rub at her back gently. “She likes you,” Will notes, smile going soft.

“I rescued her,” Hannibal says dismissively, trying to hide how pleased it makes him feel to know the small feline is so content in his arms.

“I think there’s a little more to it than that,” Will says with a shake of his head before stepping in and placing a soft kiss on Hannibal’s cheek. “What do you think, should we keep her?”

Hannibal looks up from the kitten to meet Will’s warm blue gaze. He’s always liked cats. They kept a few in the castle to deal with the mice when he was young. They were one of the few animals he ever really bonded with. “Perhaps.”

Will laughs at Hannibal’s response, knowing he’s just trying to get Will to insist upon it. “What should we call her then.”

Blinking, Hannibal thinks about it a moment. So far, Will has named all of their pets. Granted, Will was the one to bring them home and decide to keep them. This time it was all Hannibal’s doing. And he supposed that makes it fairly his turn to pick the name. “Gabriella?”

With a smile, Will gives Hannibal another kiss on the cheek before gently scratching under the kitten’s chin. “You realize I’m going to end up calling her Gabby half the time then, right?”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Hannibal nods and turns his head to kiss Will on the lips before turning to walk away. “If you do I will start calling Polly, Pauline and Charlie, Charles,” he counters lightly, earning a laugh from Will.

“Okay, okay, fair enough. Your cat, your rules. I won’t call her Gabby when you’re around.” His tone is all teasing warmth. He can’t help himself. He’s just so surprised that Hannibal, of all people, brought home a stray. And this one is all his. Will likes cats well enough, but he is undoubtedly a dog person. And Hannibal is clearly a cat one, judging by the joy he saw in the older man’s eyes when the kitten settled in his arms and began to purr contentedly.

Will followed Hannibal out to the living room, not surprised that the other man has already taken up his usual seat by the fire. The dogs are all in close, sniffing and trying to get a look at the bundle of fluff Hannibal holds. Will whistles and points to their beds. “Leave her alone,” he orders gently, watching the animals do as they're told and retreat across the room.

“You’re certain it’s alright to keep her?” Hannibal questions as he watches the dogs go get settled on their beds. He has the kitten cradled to his chest with one hand, the other stroking over her back with just a few fingers where she’s too small to pet with a full hand.

“It’s fine. The dogs will get used to her quickly. And she didn’t startle with them so close just now, so I think it’s safe to say she won’t have a problem with them being in her space,” Will does his best to reassure him as he comes to sit in the chair opposite Hannibal’s. They’re positioned on either side of the fireplace, which is lit to help fend off the cold and damp of the rainy day. It’s one of his favorite places to be when home. Sitting opposite Hannibal by the warmth of the fire with his dogs nearby.

And the sight of Hannibal now contently cuddling the soft grey kitten only adds to the happiness he feels sitting there.

Hannibal clearly feels the same, as he looks up from the kitten to smile at Will. The house feels more like home than it ever has.

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think?
> 
> You can follow me on [ Twitter](https://twitter.com/TrickyHannigram) for more fandom related fun!
> 
> Or you can also follow me on [ Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/enbystiles) for weekly writing and gaming streams.


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